SnoopyStyle
MacArthur Stern (Gene Hackman) is a grizzled veteran Washington D.C. police detective. His new partner Ellis Fielding (Dan Aykroyd) is brilliant and has multiple personalities. The duo investigates a West German politician, a series of murders, and yes... Nazis.With Bob Clark, Dan Aykroyd, Gene Hackman and Dom DeLuise, I had some hope for this lesser known comedy to be good. The basic structure is a standard buddy cop comedy. Gene Hackman does a good job, but Dan Aykroyd can't do crazy here. Certainly he can't do it to get a laugh. Mostly he is ridiculous, doing a bad interpretation of the Road Runner. Both men are professional, and there is some chemistry. It's just not enough to give this a recommendation.
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews
I usually find Dan Aykroyd to be good in comedies, and I'm rarely disappointed by Gene Hackman, whatever the movie. So, when I hear about them in a movie together, I naturally want to check it out. Even if it's rated low here on IMDb. Well, this is one of the times where I wish I hadn't been so curious... or at least that I took the advice of one of the many reviewers on this site, and didn't watch it. Fortunately, I had been prepared that it wasn't going to be particularly good, so I didn't pay that much attention to it. Whenever I did look at the screen or even listen to the audio, I felt sorry. Sorry for Aykroyd, sorry for Hackman, sorry for anyone else who has even a tiny bit of talent and yet worked on this movie(one person I'm not feeling sorry for is director Bob Clark, who doesn't seem to have crapped out one single half-decent semi-quality film in his entire career, despite how lengthy it is). The plot is ridiculous. The pacing is poor. The acting isn't even slightly impressive. The characters are clichés and stereotypes. The humor is all crude innuendos and people swearing. How is that funny? Oh, and of course there's Aykroyd's characters multiple personality disorder. Ah yes. Lets laugh at a terrible mental disorder. And what's with how serious the film tries to be, at times? It might have been slightly entertaining, if it didn't take itself so seriously. All in all, just a terrible failure on every conceivable level. I recommend this only to hardcore fans of Hackman and Aykroyd. Everyone else should do themselves a huge favor and skip this. There are plenty of other films with the two actors, and most of them are far better. 1/10
dee.reid
I'm 15. I first remember seeing this film along time ago when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Now after renting from the video store I had a chance to view it again.Gene Hackman plays Mac, a cop who is reluctantly partnered with Ellis (Dan Aykroyd) to solve a series of grisly murders. Ellis also happens to have Multiple Personality Disorder and when faced with violence he begins to go into these alternate personalities, mostly characters from popular television shows. Back to the story, the killer behind the murders is a German named Von Metz (Robert Prosky) who has employed a group of bloodthirsty hitmen to kill anyone who has viewed a snuff film that contains the death of Hitler at the hands of Von Metz. Now Von Metz, if he can get the film off the black market, will almost certainly be elected as chancellor of West Germany. Now a lot of people have dissed this movie for numerous reasons; I only agree with a few of them. Yes, I think Dan Aykroyd's character could have been pulled off by somebody better, like Robin Williams. This movie isn't really all that violent, yes people get shot a lot, but that is about it, even though many people say it is. Also many people say this movie isn't really that funny, I found myself laughing quite a few times.
I give it a 6/10
fugue-4
Loose Cannons is a horrible combination of detective thriller and black comedy. Hackman and Aykroyd are wasted (and probably eternally incompatible) talents in a movie that should never have been made. A detective doing cartoon character impersonations join Mossad agents in a chase after a Nazi porn film showing Hitler committing suicide. The plot has all the makings of an Austin Powers spoof - a possibility that is sadly never explored in a film taking itself much, much too seriously.
AD
